Friday, many of them removed important documents and files to relocate to temporary office space.

The building has been shut down all week due to the fire at the neighboring Macy's building,

What began as a temporary inconvenience has turned into a much larger problem that may keep a 19-story downtown office building closed for a long time because of fire code violations.

A fire last weekend at the former Macy's building next door forced a temporary shutdown of the neighboring Allegheny Building, which houses dozens of law offices, a Crazy Mocha coffee shop and the Apollo Cafe restaurant on Forbes Avenue.

After an inspection, Pittsburgh Fire Chief Darryl Jones said the Allegheny Building was found to be in violation of a fire code -- not having a fire pump to feed a sprinkler or standpipe system.

"First and foremost is the safety of the occupants in the building," Jones said.

"If that can't be down without the occupants being safe then the building has to be shut down."

Frustrations boiled over Tuesday when partners and employees of law firms were prevented from going in the building to collect files.

The building, remains closed until further notice.

Like dozens of law firms in the building, Tim Tomasic, of Tomasic & Associates, stands to lose thousands of dollars without access to active cases he represents.

"I've got over a 125 clients," he said.

"I've got my computer and all of my supplies there and I have a family. I have children."

Much of their anger was directed toward the building's New York-based owner, King Penguin Opportunity Fund, which they said has not provided any status updates on the fate of the building.

Pittsburgh's Action News 4 left a message with the firm but the call was not returned.